The Kingdom of Nexus
by 50 regrets
Summary: New summary: When a region where war, death and destruction is the norm gets transported to Remnant, will order be restored to this new region once and for all? No. No it won't. Rating may change for breathing space.
1. Chapter 1: Delayed Canon

**I do not own Armored Core or RWBY. If I did, I wouldn't be making fanfics now would I?**

 **EDIT: Alright, chapter is rewritten. Old one was just filled with...filler.**

 **From the ashes of destruction emerges a society where corporations hold sway. Disputes among those vying for power are a regular occurrence. All that is needed is a catalyst...and the machines of war are set in motion...unleashed to secure dominance.**

* * *

 **East Ruga Canyon  
3:00PM**

A Mirage search team consisting of MTs was deployed to investigate a nearby Navis base. The reason for this?

 **Report: Mirage Insistent/OAE Meeting Stalls**

Recently, representatives from the major corporations, Mirage, Crest, Kisaragi and Navis attended a meeting hosted by the Organization for Administration of Enterprise (OAE), to discuss Navis' new resource discovery. During this meeting, Mirage urged Navis to discontinue its monopolistic hold on the new resource and begin sharing the find with the others. Navis flatly refused, stating that since they are in control of the region, it is not an issue which involves the other corporations. Mirage responded by promising an **aggressive investigation.** The conflict between long established Mirage, and newcomer Navis, has reached a point where open aggression between the two is inevitable.

And here they were now, in the middle of a canyon. The search team's MTs were eleven meters tall with reverse-jointed legs and a bullet shaped torso. They were armed with a rifle on the top of the torso, and missile launchers on the sides. These iconic machines were the cannon fodder of any more advanced model of MT.

"This is the search team, we're approaching the base now." The commander of the four-man squad transmitted to the nearest Mirage base. It was important to keep tabs on the activity of all MTs to see if help was needed, if the objective was complete etc.

"Four, go up ahead through the crevice and relay info back to us." The commander ordered the foremost pilot. Everyone in the region, no, world was advised against using their real names. 'All it took was one look at a database and the home of a soldier was burnt to the ground', was the excuse for this. There was no proof it had happened, but it seemed pretty accurate.

"We're under attack!" 'Four' shouted out as he shot his missiles at the enemy. One of the missiles were shot down by an anti-missile laser, but the other one made contact. 'Four' was quickly shot down with a few rifle shots, killing the pilot inside.

"Search team here, we've encountered resistance. This must be Navis' doing." The commander reported, worried about what took down 'Four' so quickly.

"It's a Raven!" Another pilot shouted. Ah... that's what it was. The search team didn't stand a chance. A missile shot out from the crevice, hitting the closest MT, which then got gunned down by more rifle shots, smoke pouring from the MT covering the entrance. A slightly shorter, bipedal figure emerged from the smoke. It was the Raven, piloting the Armored Core, AC for short, that all new Ravens piloted, made from the cheapest AC parts money could buy.

The AC lunged at the commander, using its boosters to propel it, and then proceeded to swing its left arm around to its right shoulder. The AC proceeded to ignite a laser blade on its forearm, and swung the left arm back around to slash at the MT, instantly destroying it. All within the span of one second.

The last remaining MT pilot fired at the Raven with his rifle and missile launchers, but to no avail. Most of the shots were dodged due to the boosters of the AC, and the shots that did connect dealt little damage. The Raven returned fire with their own rifle, quickly dispatching the last MT with a few shots.

"No energy sources detected. Area secured." The computer of the AC spoke. "Mission objective achieved. System switched to normal mode." The AC then lowered its weapons. The Raven piloting the AC made some mental notes. Mainly that the boosters had almost already overheated the AC, and, for an initiation mission, there was a strangely low amount of casualties. With those notes, the Raven returned to their home, the Raven's Ark.

* * *

 **East Ruga Canyon  
Navis Research Outpost  
9:00PM**

"The hell just happened?" The lead scientist asked. They were performing experiments with a new resource, one that wasn't ancient technology. It was some sort of element that Navis' mining teams had discovered, a strange kind of crystal. The research team had also noted that they came in various colors, and each had a different effect.

Their current experiment with these crystals before the whole incident? Testing if the crystals could do teleportation. Hey, these were essentially magic crystals, why not test the limits? Maybe because it almost looked like a glowing ball of death surrounded the region.

"It appears that..." Another scientist was about to answer, attempting to access the satellites Navis had. Unfortunately there was no response."Alright, I think we need to send another satellite up. I've lost contact with our current network."

"Alright, launching satellite."

"That quick?"

"For all we knew we were gonna teleport the whole planet into a new solar system. I figured we'd need a lot of backup protocols." The lead scientist replied. To be honest, they were really scared. Teleportation is a frightening thing. You could get Earth right next to a black hole. Or inside a star.

"Launching in 3," The automated computer voice came online. "2," The engine of the rocket carrying the satellite payload roared to life. "1...0" The sound of thunder boomed throughout the whole region.

Other satellites were being placed in orbit as well, Mirage, Crest, Kisaragi, even the Raven's Ark deployed a satellite network. It became evident that everyone else was trying to grasp the situation as well.

"Satellite deployed." As the base's AI spoke, the new world slowly revealed itself as everyone tried to get a good look at the situation.

"Dear god... the hell happened to the Moon? It looks like someone nuked a side of it!" A reconnaissance team reported. Everyone took a nice good look at the Moon, and half of it was fragmented. Just as things seemed like they couldn't get any worse, the men and women looking at the images being displayed by the satellite revealed something else.

"We placed the whole region onto another planet?" The footage being shown had a whole different kind of geography. There was nothing they recognized here. The region was placed close to another landmass, _very_ close.

A temporary truce was placed between all the corporations until everyone could figure out what just happened.

* * *

 **Beacon Academy  
** **9:00AM  
** **1 Day After Arrival**

The Cross-Continental Transmit System, or CCTS for short, managed to access the network of this new island due to its proximity to the kingdoms, then displayed the data on screen. It was honestly really strange. A white ball of death just appeared in the ocean between Vale, Atlas and Mistral, and when it died down a new island stood in its place. That was not the main concern however.

Beacon Academy, a school for aspiring huntsmen and huntresses to train and defend humanity from the soulless creatures of Grimm. The students had all gathered into the CCT around each accessible display to see what had just been picked up. It was really crowded, everyone was murmuring about wanting to know when the broadcast was about to start. The broadcast in question? The Raven's Ark civilian television series named, "Raven Arena". Nothing more, nothing less. It was relatively new, no one expected teleportation. The name could've been more creative though.

"Great, we came here to watch birds fight in a new island! How exciting." A certain blonde huntress in training spoke out. The broadcast started suddenly, and the show started as the students went silent.

* * *

 **Karuba Mountains  
** **Navis Warehouse**

Raven's Ark's pilots still needed to be sharp as the truce was only temporary. The area in front of Navis Warehouse was being used to set up a match between two Ravens.

Ammo, the Rank 29 Raven was getting his beige and black AC, named Birth Bomb ready for the arena match against the newcomer. Birth Bomb was a middleweight, biped, Crest AC equipped with an unguided, double-barreled rocket launcher connected to the right arm and a laser blade bolted to the left. The lack of Fire Control System compatible weapons was a huge disadvantage, as he had to aim manually against a target that went at high-speed. However, he was confident that he would win.

NR, the ever silent Rank 30 Raven, and the one who destroyed the Mirage search team as his first mission, was piloting his AC in the training area. He only had the basic starting AC, a very inefficient, slow, energy consuming, middleweight biped that deals scratch damage with the guided missile launcher, a rifle, and a radar. The only advantage was that he could use his FCS with those weapons. And the laser blade was good compared to the rest of his arsenal. But that wasn't saying much. At least he painted it.

"Cameras are rolling in 3 seconds." The hosts spoke out. There were representatives from each of the major corporations sent to observe the Ravens, to make sure their elite mercenaries were still effective. NR was be demonstrating the combat capabilities of even the lowest rank Ravens hadn't been disoriented by the situation, and Ammo was showing the condition of the ACs hadn't degraded due to the teleportation.

Then there would be the duel between them. "2," It was odd, to say the least. Using machines of war for what amounted to a game show. "1," Whatever. None of it mattered right now. They were getting paid to put on a show right now. Not exactly how a Raven expects to use their ACs, but there have been stranger uses. "0. Ravens, do your best, and don't disappoint the people at home alright?"

* * *

 **Raven's Ark Media Studio**

There were two presenters, one in a white suit, the other in black, surrounding a table, think your everyday news network... but in the future.

"Hello, I'm James." The presenter in white stated, with a noticeable British accent.

"And I'm David." The presenter in black followed up, with the most American accent one could imagine. As in, having every individual accent of fifty states fit into one voice.

"And we'll be the hosts of this new show. Now, first, lets get the questions out of the way first, like; 'What just happened to the region? Are we dead and are all currently living in a purgatory of sorts?' The answer is, that we are not dead, and it appears that either we all got transported onto a new planet, or we terraformed the rest of the Earth."

"Or maybe we _are_ dead."

"Either way, it is confirmed that civilization exists here, and the OAE will be attempting to make contact. The major corporations have also agreed to a temporary truce. So, anyway. Back to the reason we have..." James looked at the viewer counter, and could tell something was off immediately. There was no way the only people watching the program were those of the region. "a few hundred thousand viewers."

"I guess we got some first impressions to make." David added rather quietly. James then grabbed the microphone to make an announcement.

"Ravens, get to the Arena please."

"So, while we wait for them to get there, how about telling the people at home why we don't use our full names?"

* * *

 **Navis Warehouse Arena**

The ACs were walking towards the Arena, which was just outside of the warehouse, and positioned themselves opposite of each other, Ammo's beige and black colored AC being on the north side and NR's orange and white AC being on the south side. Both pilots stood on the sand, awaiting the hosts to give off the signal. Ammo took the chance to do a little trash-talking.

"You don't stand a chance in that AC."

NR wasn't sure that Ammo was entirely wrong. The speakers came on.

"Ready?" Both combatants raised their AC's right arm, pointing the guns at their opponent.

"Go!"

* * *

 **Edit: Yeah, so added and removed some things. Changed the summary.**

Alright, I'm just gonna say, I was really scared about doing this and still am. The part that scares me is getting the personalities of the characters of RWBY right. I mean, honestly I can see why people use OCs now. So much easier to use a blank slate, like every AC character. Gimme your feedback. Help me out here. By the way, NR is just supposed to be an abbreviation of Nexus Raven. Kinda wanna keep him like that. Don't wanna give him a name. Keeping him like the blank slate he is. Also, any name recommendations for the Raven's AC?


	2. Chapter 2: Shining

**I do not own Armored Core or RWBY. Thought that was a given.**

 **Also, thanks for reviewing this.**

 **MaxHD2490: I really think that the AC3 series was the best series. The ACs aren't OP against everything non AC, and it's more fleshed out.**

 **KisaragiKei: It's usually a safer bet to just drop a few guys down, it reduces the needs to know about the Raven's world. It's less risky. But that is a risk I can take.**

* * *

 **Beacon Academy CCT**

From the minute that the new show was broadcast, everyone noticed something wrong. It wasn't the extremely different accents from the presenters, the fact that the broadcast was put in place only a day after the incident or because of the arena's existence.

It was the lack of panic. The presenters didn't seem even bothered by the fact that they had left an entire planet. They just acted as if this wasn't anything significant, that the new discovery was just another daily event.

However, these were professionals after all. It was ignorant to judge the many by the actions of a few. Then again, that didn't exactly stop people from doing so.

Either way, if this was truly a facade in order to reduce panic, it didn't seem all that effective, because getting the idea of being in a purgatory inside the heads of dazed citizens was probably a bad idea.

At least they learned some things from this new region. The inhabitants were humans, and they seemed to have been at some sort of war if the truce was anything to go by. The major corporations seemed to be the perpetrators of this war, and there appeared to be another force at play, the OAE. Perhaps this OAE was one of the major corporations? They were certainly important to some degree.

Then there was the case of the full names. A case that looked rather insignificant, but was worth talking about. Apparently this war was severe enough to convince citizens to go by a first name basis, or even use fake aliases and nicknames.

The cameras then switched to a different scene, one showing the combatants. Which were not birds.

"Really Yang? Birds?"

"And you knew to make the connection between the name of a bird, and a robot?"

"No..."

* * *

 **Raven's Ark Media Studio**

"So... James, what do you think is gonna happen after the truce ends?" David brought up another topic while the cameras were off of them.

"War. That's all that's going to happen. It's all that has ever happened... whether it's between corporations, rebels, terrorists, it's going to be the same thing over and over again."

"And look where it got us. From construction tools to war machines, limited to regenerating energy, normal humans to... whatever Genobee is." David noted. "If someone ever asks you what war is good for, don't say absolutely nothing."

"Well, what about the other guys outside of our region's borders? What if they decide to get involved?"

"We just have to wait and hope nobody screws up anything... but given the corporations' track records, chances are we're gonna be in hot water with our new neighbors." The Ravens in the arena positioned their ACs, and the presenters then spoke into the mics.

* * *

 **Navis Warehouse Arena**

The two Ravens stood outside the warehouse in their ACs, the sand on the flat, open field doing little to obscure vision. Must not have been windy that day.

"Ready?" Both combatants raised their ACs' right arm, pointing the guns at their opponent.

"Go!"

Ammo fired the rocket launcher as soon as he could, hoping to limit NR's movement. The rocket was dodged, and Ammo was peppered with rifle rounds as he tried to boost out of NR's FCS. NR proceeded to circle strafe all the while boost tapping. NR then attempted to gain a lock with the missile launcher as Ammo started boosting towards him, firing rockets at the same time. NR attempted to dodge the slow rockets, sidestepping to the left and right, and finally got a lock. He shot the missile out, and switched back to his rifle. Ammo charged headfirst through the missile, taking only a small amount of damage.

Truly NR's AC was utter shit.

Ammo, still under fire from NR's rifle, then went in for an attack with his laser blade, quickly projecting an orange stream of energy from his left forearm and swiping at NR who had chosen to engage him at point blank range. NR was grazed in the shoulder, and countered with his own blade, slashing Ammo's waist and leaving behind quite the scorch mark. Ammo disengaged and the two fought at medium range, NR holding the advantage with his rifle. Both of the ACs were starting to run out of energy though, and Ammo chose that time to strike. As NR began to run on his AC's legs to regenerate energy, Ammo fired the rocket on his back, striking NR in the left arm, and switched to the rockets on his back to do more damage.

NR's AC had overheated, temporarily reducing energy regeneration, then... he ran out of power. Warning signals and alarms blared on in the AC.

[Output Down]

[Charging]

This was a severe disadvantage. Ammo proceeded to pelt NR with more rockets, NR being limited to running and jumping due to the generator needing to be recharged back to full. NR sprang out of the way of another rocket, and retaliated with more rifle rounds, the FCS guiding the gun and predicting Ammo's approximate location. Ammo, now at half his original AP, also ran out of energy in an attempt to circle strafe.

This was NR's chance to strike. Two more seconds, and his boosters would be back in action. Ammo backpedaled away from NR, the combatants still exchanging hits. One more second, NR stopped his AC to recover energy quicker, getting hit by another rocket. "Warning, AP at 50%." Ammo then jumped up in the air to avoid a few rifle shots. NR's generator was finally at full capacity once again, allowing him to use his boosters and energy weapns. And he did.

NR made a mad dash towards Ammo, sidestepping every so often to dodge the occasional rocket. As he reached his target, he unleashed his laser blade once again to wreak havoc on the crippled AC Birth Bomb. NR swung at the core of Birth Bomb, and started to shoot at the legs of Birth Bomb, waiting for his blade to become active once again. Ammo then shot at NR with his arm mounted rocket launcher at point blank range, hitting NR's AC in the right arm, blowing it apart with ease. The dismembered AC countered with stabbing Birth Bomb in the head, then flew backwards into the air to launch another missile at the blinded Ammo.

Birth Bomb switched to the secondary camera located in the core, allowing Ammo to see with a lower quality display. He noticed NR flying into the air, and fired a rocket into the air, a rocket that grazed NR's rather large radar. Ammo then found a missile, and ignored it, thinking that the Anti-Missile-Guidance of the core would take of the problem. But the problem remained. The missile wasn't destroyed, and promptly impacted the rocket launcher on Ammo's back, rendering it useless.

NR, seeing that the AMG system was destroyed by his previous attack on Birth Bomb's core, continued to launch more missiles as he landed back on the ground, and returned to his strategy at the start of the match, circle strafing, boost tapping and launching missiles whenever they got a lock. Ammo had regained access to his boosters, and started moving erratically in an attempt to dodge the missiles, and darted across the arena, leaving a trail of sand in the air. He ignited his blade in a last ditch effort to disable the weaponry of his opponent. NR, seeing this, launched one last missile, and also started a blade attack. Ammo charged through the missile, the alarms in his AC blaring.

"Warning, AP at 10%. Take evasive action."

NR then swung his blade early, before Ammo could reach him, and his blade formed a wave of energy that separated from the blade and propelled itself towards the charging AC, striking Birth Bomb in the legs and finishing the fight.

"Defenses damaged. Halting combat and returning to normal mode." Birth Bomb's computer notified Ammo.

"I won't forget you..." Ammo growled at NR. The victorious Raven still stayed silent.

* * *

 **So, the chapter's short, yes, but they should get longer when the region finally makes contact with the kingdoms. Still worried about getting the RWBY characters right, and I might have a name for NR's AC. Either way, Arena fight is done, now things can get interesting. Well, maybe after another chapter.**


	3. Chapter 3: Diplomacy Has Failed

**Alright, this story has been getting more followers and favorites than I thought, so that's nice.**

 **KisaragiKei: 1)I thought blade waving was a default thing after AC:SL, but if it isn't then I can work it in. It would explain why the Raven would be so quiet, if you read Tower City Blade then you'd notice that being a Plus has certain side effects.**

 **2)The Raven will become a major character alongside a select few other Ravens and Huntsmen.**

 **3)The Raven will pilot a mid-weight bipedal, the rest will be a small surprise. Their AC will evolve overtime. They will also remain silent. They will have thoughts, but will never speak.**

* * *

 **Northern Border of New Region  
** **1 day after arrival  
** **3:00PM**

A representative from the OAE stood alone on a beach, the waves of the ocean slowly creeping up the shore. She was rather unsettled to say the least. She simply stood there, awaiting first contact with the natives. There were already so many problems with this situation. Cultural differences, language barriers and a boatload more issues that added to her fear.

On the bright side, she was accompanied by an infantry team armed with Armor-Piercing rifles, a few MT pilots, and a Raven, who was yet to arrive. A small amount of the MTs and the pilots were from the corporations, the rest from the OAE itself. The Raven, on the other hand was forced by the Ravens' Ark to accompany the team in order to dispel any hostile intentions from the natives.

Because the MTs clearly weren't enough. Then again, nobody sees the MTs as threats. Especially the "chicken-leg" variants.

"Hey, Nigel?" One of the Mirage-employed MT pilots called out to his friend.

"Please don't say my name. Or anyone's name."

"You're really scared of getting murdered in your sleep because someone knows your real name? What, would you rather that I go with your alias, that people can also just look for on a database and then find your name and kill you? Nigel, you need to understand that those stories are goddamn retarded. Use your brain."

"Sure, Frank... sure." Nigel sighed. He wasn't as professional as most pilots, he never was, but he wasn't eager on dying, less so now that he was _very_ far away from home. "I just think that we need to be much more careful, now more than ever. Politics is a very delicate thing, you know. And I think war with MORE factions is the last thing we want."

"Leave the politics to the brunette down there. And don't talk to the Navis guys. Mirage is suspicious of traitors already."

Nigel remembered something else at that moment. "By the way, did you see the arena fight? I've never seen someone do that blade-wave thing before."

"Actually I heard that it was integrated into all laser blades just recently. The blade-wave feature, that is. Then again, I could be wrong... and NR could be a Plus. ?"

"I wasn't talking about NR and Ammo, I mean the one with that one Raven... Kikka*, was it?"

"Speaking of Ravens, isn't our Raven supposed to be here by now?"

"We've got our MTs, and some boots on the ground. I think we'll be able to do more without a Raven intimidating everyone. Still, would be nice to have them here." Nigel then took notice of the sounds of jets in the distance. Didn't seem like the Raven was gonna arrive on time.

* * *

 **100 kilometers away from the Northern Border**

"The hell were those things?" Vernhunt, the Rank 18 Raven, and pilot of the AC Great Den spoke out in curiosity. He was assigned by the Ark to protect a diplomatic meeting, and came across some sort of... black creature with white armor plating, and red markings on the armor. The creature attacked, but it was easily put down with a shot from his pulse rifle, the beam completely engulfing the much smaller creature.

"This is bad..." He muttered as he looked over at the transport chopper, that was destroyed by another one of those beasts, a large number of feathers penetrating the cockpit. "Guess I'll have to get there myself."

Suddenly, another AC zoomed by, heading towards the meeting. It took Vernhunt a while to understand what was going on, trying to put the pieces together. The appearance of an unidentified AC usually meant bad things. "Oh hell no." Vernhunt gave chase, his middleweight AC going as fast as possible.

He then noticed another AC going past him, this one oddly enough being marked as friendly. He took a moment to look at the friendly AC, and instantly recognized it from the white and orange color scheme. "No one ever told me another Raven would be hired... let alone the Rank 30 guy. At least he got a slightly better AC now."

* * *

 **Northern Border**

A large number of Bullheads and other aerial transports were heading towards the new region, carrying an entire army equipped with anti-armor weaponry alongside a number of huntsmen courtesy of Atlas. The man leading this group was James Ironwood, a huntsmen, and a General in the Atlesian military. He stood at the bridge of an Atlesian Airship, wearing a white overcoat with a gray undercoat, awaiting any new developments.

It was better to be sure that you had enough guns when the first impression you get from an entirely new civilization is 'Machines of war and destruction are common enough to be used in gladiatorial combat.'

"Sir, we've spotted some men on the ground, most of them are armed." A soldier reported.

"Deploy the troops." Ironwood ordered.

The fleet proceeded to drop off soldiers, and the men of the OAE could only wonder why so many military assets were being used in a **diplomatic meeting.** The soldiers, which the pilots noticed also consisted of automatons, then walked up towards the OAE representative and the others accompanying her.

The OAE infantry, knowing they were outmatched, proceeded to lower their guns in the hopes that it would prevent any irrational responses.

"Nigel, you see those guys over there, behind all the soldiers?" Frank alluded to the huntsmen staying at the back. The MTs were hidden somewhere a good distance behind the OAE infantry.

"Yeah, they're not wearing armor. How come?"

"No idea. Just stay alert. They haven't done anything stupid yet."

"Where's our Raven?"

Ironwood then walked past his men, which some OAE infantry noted had what looked like a strip of metal above his right eyebrow, and raised a hand, which the OAE representative shook. "Miss," he began, "Do you understand me?"

"Yes I do." She responded, bewildered by the lack of a language barrier, but thankful nonetheless.

"I hope you understand why there is the whole army on your border. Our first impressions were made from your 'Arena'."

"Right... sure." She was still rather wary of all the soldiers, and she felt that most of the blame lied within the Ark for broadcasting two Ravens shooting the shit out of each other. "Well... I suppose you came here for a reason?"

"Yes, I am here to make sure you're not going to be our enemies. You transported an entire island onto Remnant, which is the name of this planet," Ironwood clarified, then continued, "and we are unsure on your purpose for being here."

"Well, I represent the OAE, the ensemble of most of the major corporations, and from the reports, ending up here was an accident. And we do not intend to attack any of your nations or governing bodies."

"I would rather prefer being told that from your leaders themselves, however I suppose this will have to do for now. Just be aware, that any aggressive actions will be met in kind." Ironwood stated. After a short pause, he spoke again. "Hopefully we can confirm your intentions as soon as possible."Another pause. "For now though, welcome to Remnant."

All of a sudden, the representative's radio came to life. "Hate to be the bringer of bad news," One of the MT pilots spoke. "Three ACs are heading our way. Two friendly. One unknown."

"Sir, you should probably get going. In fact, we all should." The representative advised Ironwood.

"Any particular reason for this?" Ironwood asked, still cautious of the new arrivals.

"Yes." She simply replied as a dozen Mirage, Crest and Navis MTs appeared from the depths of the region, making a lot of Atlesian soldiers raise their weapons in fear of getting attacked by the giant machines which made the Atlesian Paladin prototype look like an outdated tool."Because those," she pointed to the team of MTs, "won't be enough to save us from ACs. Or as you know them, the mechs from that Arena show."

* * *

 **30 kilometers away from the Northern Border  
** **Insert music here. I dunno. Maybe some Eurobeat? How about AC Nexus OST: 9 memories?**

A red and black hover-leg AC made its way to the meeting spot. The pilot's job wasn't to ruin any chance of peaceful contact with the outside nations, but to eliminate the entire MT/AC team located there. He would normally refuse this, but the money was just too good. The diplomacy of a nation destined to civil war was not exactly one of his main concerns.

The client was actually unknown, however. In the briefing the client also mentioned something about collecting combat data and being worried about potential Ravens disrupting the balance of power. Also, it mentioned that oddly enough, this might be able to convince this world's nations to stay out of the region's affairs.

"10 kilometers until reaching the combat area." The computer went. "Enemy ACs Galvanize and Great Den detected. Scanning..." His AC found NR and Vernhunt it would seem. Great Den was closer to him, and more of a threat, so he entered the combat area and immediately fired at Vernhunt with micro-missiles, catching him unaware and taking half of the missiles to the core, nearly breaking through the armor.

Vernhunt fired missiles back at the unidentified AC, the launchers on his AC's shoulders firing as well. "Damned Irregulars." He grunted as the missiles missed. He switched to his pulse rifle and machine gun and started pelting the Irregular with lasers and bullets, doing significant amounts of damage and then switched back to his missiles to conserve energy and launched another salvo. Vernhunt activated his Overboost, and four triangular panels on the back of his AC's core flipped open, revealing large boosters that produced a glow around the back, then shot out a stream of energy, easily overtaking the hover-legged Irregular, but draining a lot of energy.

Vernhunt was then met was another batch of micro-missiles and shots from two gatling guns, severely draining his AP in a quick attack. "Warning, AP at 50%." His computer spoke out. Another burst, 30%. Vernhunt fought back with more shots, but his AC took too much damage. "Warning, AP at 10%."

"Damn it, Raven, deal with him!" Vernhunt shouted while he temporarily withdrew from the area. The Irregular then went for the MTs again, this time at close range. He switched back to his micro-missiles and launched multiple salvos at some heavy MTs, crippling them and leaving them vulnerable to further attacks. The Atlesian soldiers took notice of this, and fired at the Irregular, but to no avail as the hover-legs made it extremely nimble. Not to mention that the shots that did hit only scratched the AC, while the Anti-Tank weaponry would only create small dents.

The Irregular then destroyed eight of the Mirage MTs, and finished off the heavyweight Crest ones.

"Shit, Nigel is dead!" Frank shouted, firing fruitlessly at the AC. Frank was then eviscerated by a barrage of gatling gun rounds, his MT blowing up and flinging debris at the friendly infantry.

A huntsmen wearing a tan trench coat and equipped with a revolver-knife combo went in to engage the mechanical titan, his teammates occupied with keeping the soldiers alive, and leaped up high to shoot at the AC's optics, and slashed at the antenna on its head, making a large scratch and a slight amount of radar disruption. The Irregular was impressed with the strength that he possessed. And rewarded him with a bullet from his gatling gun as the huntsmen landed back on the ground.

The huntsmen was knocked away and landed next to the corpse of an MT, his aura barely saving him from death. It was a futile battle, the Irregular had decimated two thirds of the MT forces and only a third of his AP had been lost.

"Where the hell is our Raven?" Another pilot yelled in despair, then was subsequently riddled full of holes, only a few MTs still alive. NR then burst out into the combat area, and diverted the Irregular's attention with a few rifle shots. NR's AC was upgraded with a better rifle, a WH01R-GAST model and better boosters of the B04-BIRDIE2 model. He would have done more had he been given more money.

Didn't really matter though when faced with an AC that had completely custom parts. The Irregular fired one final salvo of micro-missiles before purging the missile launcher, the piece dropping to the ground. NR's AMS destroyed some of the missiles with a laser, however most of them hit the AC in the left arm. NR retaliated with his rifle and blade only, his missile launcher having been purged as well due to it being about as helpful as diet water.

"Warning, AP at 50%." The Irregular's computer blared at the pilot. He then purged his now empty gatling guns and his core jettisoned a pair of high-power handguns that looked like a revolver cylinder stuck inside a brick, and caught the backups with his arms.

'That's new.' NR thought to himself about that weapon storage method as he struck the Irregular's core, doing a lot more than just leaving a scorch mark. The Irregular, now in point blank range, then attempted to shove the handguns into the core of Galvanize, NR's AC, and shot twice with both pistols, and backed off. NR boosted around, circling the Irregular and then jumped up into the air, using an aerial strategy instead.

The Irregular was struck with more rifle shots as he destroyed another cluster of MTs. The Irregular then shot out NR's boosters, forcing him to land and become essentially a sitting duck. "Warning, AP at 50%." NR couldn't believe it. One Irregular was giving so much trouble to two ACs, an entire team of MTs and an army of soldiers from two different worlds. Perhaps it was because of the Starter AC?

The Irregular then focused on NR's left arm, pummeling him with round after round. NR's left arm was then damaged to the point where it couldn't move anymore, and the Irregular circled around the left side of NR's AC, who was trying strafe around and gain distance, which was difficult against a hover-leg.

Said hover-leg then rammed into Galvanize, forcing it to crash into a friendly MT and crush the pilot inside. "Who uses an AC for that?" One of the OAE infantry questioned nervously. They had hidden themselves and the representative in a space too small for an AC to enter, and the infantry were not equipped for combat with ACs, so they would be ignored. Usually. They were still shooting at the Irregular, occasionally accidentally hitting Galvanize, but that did nothing.

Galvanize then rose up from the ground again, and NR attacked with another burst of rifle shots. The Irregular then purged the revolvers to jettison yet another pair of handguns of the pulse rifle variety. NR shot twice at the Irregular's core while sidestepping a couple of green beams, penetrating the core and destroying the FCS, forcing the Irregular to aim manually. "Huh..." The Irregular grunted quietly in light surprise.

NR was running out of ammo, and his AC's AP was doing terrible. Pretty soon he would have to rely on the MTs and infantry to get his ass out of the fire, which was pretty unlikely. "Raven, you need to hold out a little longer, help is on the way." NR's operator spoke out. He almost forgot about her.

"This is Great Den, Raven, I'm not sure how much longer I can hold out but I'm going to provide assistance." Vernhunt transmitted to NR. "I knew I should've gotten Trasher to help me." Vernhunt then jumped into the fray, taking a beam meant for an MT, and countered with pulse rifle shots, the machine gun too battered to do anything.

Another huntsmen joined the combat, and rocketed towards the Irregular. He then managed to blow up a booster by some miracle, however he was promptly backhanded by the AC. The Irregular lost some mobility, but still remained agile as ever as he dodged beams, rifle rounds and rockets with ease. The Irregular then rammed into another heavier MT, which tried to pry the AC off and ended up almost tearing off the head of the AC, leaving a very disfigured face.

Vernhunt then launched one last salvo of missiles before purging the missile launchers and extension. The Irregular swerved away from the missiles, a couple of them hitting the MT and disabling it, however the pilot survived. The Irregular then focused on the crippled ACs, mostly on Vernhunt. A few lucky hits managed to stop Vernhunt dead in his tracks, who was saved only by Great Den's fail-safe systems. The focus then switched to NR, who was then out of ammo and had to purge his last remaining weapon.

"Raven, grab the pulse rifle from my AC!" Vernhunt commanded. NR did as he said, unfortunately subjecting Vernhunt to a couple stray pulse rifle shots. NR had to wait a while for the rifle to integrate with his AC's systems, namely the FCS, and because of it being an energy weapon, the generator. The Irregular knew this, and swapped his targets from ACs to MTs once again. Only a couple MTs were left, and the sooner he got rid of them, the less of an annoyance they would prove to be.

He pierced the core of an MT with his pulse rifle and fired at point blank range, also destroying another MT with his free gun. NR finally got Vernhunt's pulse rifle working, and returned to firing at the Irregular, hoping to end this firefight before the other soldiers got caught in the crossfire more than they already were. The Irregular ran out of ammo in his own pulse rifles, and pulled out YET ANOTHER PAIR OF WEAPONS. 'Oh you have to be fucking kidding me.'

The Irregular's new arsenal was a pair of single-shot plasma rifles. He then resumed murdering the last MT in the team, and released another burst of plasma towards NR, the shot missing him and grazing Vernhunt, instead hitting and disintegrating a squad of infantry. The Irregular then grabbed Galvanize's left arm, tore it off, and started _beating him down with his own arm_. NR jumped out of the way, and fired one last shot with his pulse rifle before purging yet another empty weapon. Now he was out of options.

He would die here before he would have gotten a useful AC. That was going to be his biggest regret.

The Irregular somehow managed to equip NR's laser blade from his severed arm, and blade-waved him.

"Warning, AP at 10%."

"Raven, reinforcements have entered the combat zone. Hang in there." His operator went.

"This is AC Vulcansaber, I'm engaging the Irregular." A young female announced. 'Oh great. Another AC that I haven't even seen in the rankings. Why does that name sound familiar though?' NR thought.

* * *

 ***Kikka is a canon Armored Core character from Tower City Blade. Read it, it's not that long. She'll also become a major character later on. Hopefully... no promises. Anyway, still hoping on getting the characters right. If I don't, please point that out.**


	4. Chapter 4: Learning About Each Other

**KisaragiKei: Thanks for your opinion. I personally felt conflicted about Human Plus/OP-INTENSIFY. Something kinda made me felt like I was cheating, even against other Plus Ravens.**

* * *

 **Insert obligatory OST thing... Armored Core 3 OST- Artificial Sky III**

'The name of that AC... Vulcansaber... right, that's the Rank 4 of that other Arena... the Arena with the stigma against aiming for the core, or so I've heard.'

A red bipedal AC then blew past NR, equipped with a very powerful laser rifle, laser blade and a medium-missile launcher, and also started raining down hellfire on the Irregular, who swerved his AC side-to-side to avoid some beams. NR had no ammo, and was practically useless in a fight. Fist fighting with ACs was considered impractical.

"To think, just one Irregular did so much. Then again, they were hardly a challenge." The pilot of Vulcansaber voiced. NR couldn't help but feel somewhat offended.

Vulcansaber then swiped at the Irregular with a blade, doing considerable damage. NR, still waiting for an opportunity to do some good, began acting as a decoy, however without boosters, he would get hit a lot. Good thing the Irregular had no more guns, huh?

The Irregular hovered to the flaming carcass of a higher-end MT, blue lasers impacting and exploding on him. The Irregular then tore the rifle out of the hands of the dead MT, and started firing towards the air at Vulcansaber. More blows were traded, then the Vulcansaber landed, and boosted around the Irregular to gain a lock with its missiles. It launched two medium-missiles as the Irregular tried to boost away, only to find that one of the boosters were disabled by... that huntsman he backhanded earlier.

'Come to think of it, how the hell is someone able to do that?' He thought. The missiles blew up his AC's left arm, turning it into a mangled mess of metal. He repeated the process of dodging shots while shooting at NR. That was his last target. Vulcansaber wasn't accounted for during the briefing, so he could escape once NR was eliminated.

Rifle rounds pummeled against NR's AC, the bullets almost tearing the metal apart. He was almost completely immobilized, the rounds doing a number on the already weak legs. His AP was one shot away from going to zero, and when that happened, the AC would blow up rather violently. A fate that NR would prefer not to meet.

"Ravens, we're falling back, we've lost too many of our men!" The commander of the OAE infantry told them. The soldiers on the ground did just that, and retreated back to a safer position deeper in the region. "The damn thing just kept crushing us under whatever force that keeps it afloat. You guys, in the ACs, we have a trap set up down south, follow us." Vernhunt slowly hobbled away in the no-longer combat capable Great Den.

The Irregular went in for another attack run, the finishing move to kill the Raven. He raised his rifle, aimed for the core, and-

"Did you think that I would just let you go?"

A laser beam blew the rifle away, making for a rather anti-climactic event, and the Irregular followed the red AC deeper into the region, away from NR. The good thing was, that he was still alive. Granted, his core received quite the beating, but it was holding... mostly.

The bad thing was that the Irregular was probably still hunting him. He had to get going. He also needed a gun... maybe the machine gun that those Crest MTs used would be usable? They used a trigger mechanism activated by manually pulling the trigger with something like a finger. His AC would be able to fire the gun, just without the lock-on from the FCS.

* * *

 **End your music that you probably didn't play**

Somewhere else on the battlefield, an MT with legs that looked akin to roadkill, split its chest apart. The only MT pilot to survive the carnage then emerged from the chest, and dropped down onto the ground. He was bleeding profusely from his hips, his suit was getting quite stained. He barely survived the Irregular ramming into him, the dislodged a lot of the chassis. Then the missiles from the AC Great Den jammed some metal into his kidneys. Maybe even in his lungs.

He was now stuck with the native soldiers. They seemed quite strong, but nothing could stop a good AC pilot. He couldn't blame them for being practically useless... but a whole army being thwarted by one Irregular? An infantry battalion, an elite team of MTs, multiple Ravens, airships and what looked like superhuman fighters were so easily defeated. The Irregular didn't focus on the Atlas soldiers though, so it was safe to assume the main target was the OAE troops. The rest weren't a priority, thankfully.

There was still a problem though.

He was now at the mercy of the natives of this world, and he sure as hell wasn't going to continue chasing that AC. Two near death experiences with both the Irregular and Great Den was enough.

Speaking of near death experiences, he was pretty sure that he wasn't going to stay conscious much longer.

And he didn't. He fell with a muffled "thud", and darkness engulfed his vision.

* * *

 **Atlas  
** **Hospital Trauma Center  
** **5:00PM**

"Emissaries were sent to make contact with the inhabitants of the new region, which oddly enough has been dubbed the 'Nexus Region' by a large number of citizens for an unknown reason. The emissaries then met with the representative of an organization called the 'OAE'. The OAE emissaries notably included an infantry platoon, and a large amount of mecha that varied in body styles and weaponry."

The TV went on showing images captured from an aerial view. They consisted of a very basic, blue reverse-joint-legged mecha with a bullet shaped torso and a gun mounted on top, and a much bulkier red bipedal with boxy legs and torso, a rectangular head and actual arms, the right arm held a comparably small gun.

"There were notable exceptions, such as these three that the OAE soldiers referred to as an 'AC'." Then it displayed a sleek, white and black 'AC', a bulkier and seemingly less advanced, white and orange 'AC', another streamlined red 'AC' and a much heavier looking white and yellow AC. The less advanced AC also held the same exact appearance as the one that ended up victorious in the Arena, minus the rifle.

"The diplomatic meeting was going rather well, reports say, until another mecha, which seemed to hover above the ground, attacked, mainly targeting the OAE soldiers. The attacker destroyed all of the OAE's mechanized assets, causing numerous casualties. There was only one survivor recovered by Atlas forces, the rest either died or retreated further into the region. There were very few casualties on Atlas' side, two huntsmen were nearly killed but are now fine, and a very small number of Atlas androids and soldiers were killed."

"It is important to note, that this region was supposedly in a truce prior to the attack, and that the attacker left after destroying all of the OAE's forces, rather than Atlas forces. Is this new region ripe with civil war? And what of the survivors of the attack that were recovered? Hopefully, these questions will be answered soon. In other news, terrorist activity has declined drastically after the 'Nexus Region's arrival, however Grimm activity has increased significantly-" The reporter went on.

A middle-aged man with silver hair and brown eyes, and wearing a black suit and vest listened to the news. He was sitting in the waiting room, biding his time to have a talk with the survivors. It was troubling, to say the least. Such an organized and powerful force thwarted by one man. Was this to be expected from this new region?

"Ozpin, sir, we've been sent a dossier by some group called 'Raven's Ark'. It's about the combatants who survived, including the one we recovered. Do you want a copy sir?" One of the hospital staff asked him. Ozpin was quite an influential figure in Remnant, being the headmaster of the most prestigious academy and all.

"Yes, I would appreciate that." The staff member gave him a folder and left before Ozpin could say anything else. He opened the folder and read the contents aloud.

* * *

"This dossier contains non-confidential data on Ravens, pilots and maintenance staff of the aforementioned pilots. Their status is monitored at all times, and appropriate changes will be made after any development that affects the data."

 **Alias** : NR

 **Occupation** : Raven

 **AC** : Galvanize

 **Arena** : RA Arena

 **Rank** : 30 (RA Arena ranking system is based on a points system. Points are gained by doing missions.)

 **Sex** : NO DATA, most likely male.

 **Age** : NO DATA

 **Nationality** : NO DATA

 **Appearance** : NO DATA

 **Personality** : Never talks. Doesn't show an atom of skin at any time.

 **Notable Feats** : Has defeated Birth Bomb. Is partially responsible for region teleportation, defended Navis facility that were conducting experiments relevant to the event.

 **Bounty** : None.

 **Status** : Alive, located at Tekistan.

 **My notes** : A newcomer to the Ark, I don't actually know much about him. Most data was redacted. He tries his best with what little he has. Everyone refers to him as just 'Raven' oddly enough. I think it may be just to aggravate him.

* * *

 **Alias** : Kikka

 **Occupation** : Raven

 **AC** : Vulcansaber

 **Arena** : Tekistan Arena

 **Rank** : 4 (Tekistan Arena uses the traditional ranking system.)

 **Sex** : F

 **Age** : 17

 **Nationality** : NO DATA

 **Appearance** : Thin body, black hair. (Three sizes have been requested to be kept confidential by subject.)

 **Personality** : Determined. Sensitive about certain topics. (Ravens don't spend much time with RA staff, so personalities aren't always accurate.)

 **Notable Feats** : Is Rank 4. (Couldn't find anything else in recent activity.)

 **Bounty** : None.

 **Status** : Alive, located at Tekistan.

 **My notes** : She's the daughter of a deceased legendary Raven, who went under the Alias Salamander, was raised by Ravens of the Flight Nest team, and is good friends with the Raven Störche. I'd say that's a battle ready pilot.

* * *

 **Alias** : Vernhunt

 **Occupation** : Raven

 **AC** : Great Den

 **Arena** : RA Arena

 **Rank** : 18

 **Sex** : M

 **Age** : NO DATA

 **Nationality** : American

 **Appearance** : (Requested to be kept confidential by subject.)

 **Personality** : Rather friendly.

 **Notable Feats** : Is Rank 18. (Couldn't find anything else in recent activity.)

 **Bounty** : None.

 **Status** : Alive, located at Raven's Ark HQ.

 **My notes** : He's good friends with Trasher, and carries this sort of commanding air, or so I've heard.

* * *

Then there was the survivor that they recovered.

 **Alias** : Catalyst

 **Occupation** : Mercenary MT Pilot

 **MT** : Unnamed Upgraded CR-MT85M

 **Sex** : M

 **Age** : 32

 **Nationality** : NO DATA

 **Appearance** : Black hair in a buzz cut, brown eyes, pale skin color, small amount of muscle mass on arms.

 **Personality** : Shows a dislike for romanticizing. Usually doesn't lie. Tends to be impatient.

 **Notable Feats** : Survived in an MT for 11 years, served in the Silent Line campaign.

 **Status** : Injured, located at foreign hospital.

* * *

"Sir, the patient is waking up." A nurse told Ozpin. These pilots were an interesting set of individuals.

* * *

The minute Catalyst woke up he received an eyeful of light, completely blinding him. The pain in his hip had been dulled too, probably due to anesthetics. His eyes adapted to the light slowly, and he was met with the sight of being in a hospital bed with medical personnel around him, and a man in a nice suit standing away from him.

"Where am I?" Catalyst asked, his voice barely wavering.

"You are in a hospital." Ozpin answered. After what seemed to be a minute, the pilot spoke again.

"Can I leave?"

"You haven't fully recovered yet, so no. You should be able to leave within a few days, however you'll have to be back for examinations to make sure nothing is infected." A nurse replied. Ozpin then began asking some questions.

"May I ask what exactly do you remember prior to ending up here?"

"Well," Catalyst recollected. "I was assigned to guard a diplomatic meeting, everything was fine, then something happened."

"You were attacked."

"Yeah, that."

"Do you know who attacked you?"

"No, not at all. But I have my suspicions. It was an Irregular, so it probably wasn't hired by any of the corporations. Maybe it was just getting off on shooting some guys. I don't know."

"And what exactly are these corporations?"

"...you're not one of our guys, are you?"

"No. I don't mean any harm though, I simply wish to learn more about your region."

"Well. I guess... huh. I'll start with the corporations. The major ones are Mirage, the largest corporation that used to be a industrial machine manufacturer, Crest, a Bio-engineering firm turned to the second largest corporation and became Mirage's rival, and Kisaragi, a technological innovator that makes some weird shit like bio-weapons. There's also Navis, the guys who everyone is blaming for getting us into this mess. They discovered a new resource, multiple actually. The only one that they've disclosed is series of crystals or gems that come in multiple colors and do strange crap."

"I believe that the resource you are talking about is Dust."

"I'm going to assume that Dust refers to the name of the crystals rather than the other kind of dust." Ozpin nodded to confirm this assumption. Catalyst then went on about the war called 'The Great Destruction', Layered which was an underground society made by the survivors, the birth and demise of The Controller, or 'Dove', the Silent Line campaign and IBIS.

"All in all, we haven't learned a thing from war, and we always get our asses saved by a mute merc that would kill his friends if they were hired against each other. So, how about your world?" Ozpin waited a while before answering. This was a lot to take in. An almost endless war that would always be rekindled after a truce. The corporations would pool in all their resources to defeat a greater threat, and then return to fighting each other once the threat was removed.

"The world of Remnant was and still is, though to a lesser extent, filled with conflict such as the Great War. The main problems nowadays are the creatures of Grimm, soulless beings that are hellbent on driving us into extinction, and the White Fang, a terrorist group that fights to gain equal rights for Faunus, however they use very extreme methods in order to gain these rights. I personally have no problem with the Faunus, but I won't deny that they are being discriminated against."

"The Faunus?"

"A species similar to humans, but with animal traits."

"That brings me to another question, I may be delusional due to the amount of metal replacing my blood, but I could have sworn I saw a guy jump ten meters in the air and shoot the Irregular with a revolver. Then he got shot."

"He was a huntsmen, an elite trained to combat the Grimm and other threats to the peace of our world. He is fine now."

"Hold up, you're saying that he survived getting crushed by a bullet his size and went at the velocity of a jet fighter?" Catalyst voiced his confusion. Ozpin then went on to explain that the huntsmen had an unlocked Aura, the manifestation of his soul that all living beings had, excluding Grimm. He went on about semblances as well, only adding on to the amount of questions that Catalyst had. Mainly, 'How the hell is that even possible?'.

Ozpin finished up his explanation.

"Okay, I'm very confused but I'm sure I'll get it over time. On a new topic now though... I want to know if anyone else made it alive?"

"Only three pilots survived. I'm sorry for your loss."

"It's alright. Didn't know most of them. The rest however... I'll miss them." Catalyst sighed. "Let me guess, the survivors were Ravens? I'm surprised they're even still alive. Vernhunt got screwed over, NR was dead from the beginning and that other Raven with the red AC seemed lightly equipped. That Irregular... he's more than an ace. How did anyone live through that?"

* * *

 **Leave your opinions about this in a review please. I don't just want it. I need it. I want to improve, so there is less cringe for you.**


	5. Chapter 5: Another Job

**Alright, got another short one here. Sorry. But the chapters will hopefully get longer later on, as the story starts to get interesting.**

 **KisaragiKei: The politics will be discussed next chapter, this one is just wrapping up all the current events. Also, I'm hoping to include most of the AC series in here, but there will probably be a lot of time before another AC era starts getting involved.**

 **Guest: That will be for another time in further chapters, but yeah. The Irregular will become semi-important later on as well.**

* * *

 **'Nexus Region'  
** **130km away from the Northern Border**

"Raven, for fucks sake hit the Irregular!"

"He's moving too fast!" Vulcansaber's pilot exclaimed. Truly this Irregular was something special. The design of his AC was really aerodynamic, and seemed to put more focus on placing as many boosters on a single panel than being aesthetically pleasing. A few more shots from the laser rifle and he would be dead, but he was so fast.

The Irregular fired more rounds, and quickly ran dry. He was now down to his AC's mass. That would only be useful for one thing. Ramming. And perhaps crushing the infantry under whatever force was keeping it afloat. Which he did.

A few seconds of running over ants later, almost all of the soldiers had been crushed into a bloody mess, the rest just retreated out of the combat zone. Then the Irregular remembered something. 'Goddammit I forgot to finish off Vernhunt.' That was an immediate mission failure.

NR appeared from a large stack of rocks, and began spraying a large number of bullets at the Irregular, most of them missing their target. Then the Irregular did something really strange. He moved his AC right up to NR, and _punched_ his AC in the core. He'd been subjected to so many moves that would seem to just work because this Irregular was overly desperate. NR's AC was then completely disabled, and the core was bent inwards. The AC could still be salvaged though.

The Irregular then ate up four shots to his AC's arm. "Warning, AP at 10%." Well, it seemed like the appropriate time to get the hell out of there. And he did, his superior mobility allowing an easy escape.

The fight was over. Well, this particular one.

"Shit... what now?" The last Raven standing asked.

"Kikka, the contract states specifically that you have to protect and if at all possible, to recover any downed allies. They don't care where they get dropped off, just make sure they get somewhere like a city."

She took a minute to look at NR's AC. It seemed only partially intact. Bits and pieces were still falling off, an entire arm was missing, the legs were horribly disfigured and the core looked like the pilot was crushed to death.

"Störche, I'm pretty sure he's dead."

"The mission won't be finished unless you check."

"Fine, I'll see if he's alive." The Vulcansaber's back then extended to allow her to exit. She slowly climbed down her AC, and climbed up NR's AC. She opened the cockpit, and lo and behold, the mute Raven was only unconscious. He was also wearing a full face helmet. In fact, his whole body was hidden. Even his visor seemed overly tinted.

Kikka carried him over her shoulder, and threw him into a corner of Vulcansaber's cockpit. (Someone's laughing at that somewhere.) It was cramped. She wasn't getting paid enough for this.

* * *

 **Atlas  
** **Hospital Trauma Center**

"I guess they're just lucky." A pause. "Wait, how'd you know about the survivors?" Catalyst asked, still confused about just about everything.

"A huntsmen followed, however they decided against interaction."

"Is NR alive?"

"Yes, he is."

"Alright, good. Another question, I don't believe you've introduced yourself."

"Ah, forgive me," He cleared his throat. "my name is Ozpin, and I am the headmaster of Beacon Academy, a school that trains the next generation of huntsmen and huntresses."

"I'm Nicholas Gardner, or 'Catalyst' as the alias leads everyone to believe. And before you ask, no, there's no actual stigma against using your real name. Raven Operators do that all the time. That was just a rumor a paranoid veteran spread around to civilians." Then another question came to his head. "And why exactly would you want to talk to me? Apart from the whole 'being a pilot of a giant war machine'?

"Actually, that is the exact reason why I'm here. You see, I am here to ask if you'll help us. The kingdoms are very interested in your equipment, especially Atlas. We also need your assistance in keeping the peace, we need all the help we can get."

"You must be overcompensating if you're willing to get me on board. You're either paranoid or you know something bad is about to happen."

"Unfortunately, the White Fang has become a larger problem over a short amount of time, and the Grimm have been increasing in numbers very quickly. Criminal activity has been stopped for a short period of time due to the 'Nexus Region's arrival, however it will probably return back to its previous state soon, maybe even worse." He replied, adding quotation marks to the name of the region. It would only be a matter of time until it starts becoming too much to handle.

"Alright, I guess that makes sense. Still though... I'd need a place to stay. I would also need money to maintain my MT, and the other more obvious reasons like food. I'll help you out with your terrorist and Grimm problems, and you help me out with surviving out here. "

"That can be arranged." Ozpin assured the mercenary. "However, you are expected to act as a Huntsmen, or special forces agent, not a mercenary. Meaning that if you were to accept our offer, you will work with the kingdoms exclusively, and if you are hired by the Raven's Ark, we wish to be notified to the job you are doing as to avoid any confusion or assumptions of abandoning us."

He made those terms very clear, though Nicholas was rather uneasy due to Ozpin's knowledge of the Ark. He would have to ask about that later.

"And if I were to refuse?"

"You will have to either return to your region, or live your life as any other citizen in our kingdoms."

Well this was a hard choice. Choose between the kingdoms, as far as he knew it was a... mostly peaceful collection of united nations that are in need of help from time to time against criminals, extremists and soulless beings and either be the hero or the victim...

Or the region where everyone is going to end up killing each other in a power struggle, people die by the hundreds everyday, nobody trusts each other due to a large percentage of betrayals, Raven on Raven betrayals becoming a common occurrence, civilians being caught in the crossfire, Crest using people as guinea pigs for their genetic enhancements for their super-soldier Genobee, Kisaragi doing some weird ass shit with bio-weapons, Mirage manipulating the OAE to their will, and Navis hogging all their new discoveries (With the exception of Dust, Navis drained all of it on experiments to see how it worked.)

And of course, the Raven's Ark. Where nobody hires MT pilots anymore because even on a tight budget, NR, due to his status as the Rank 30, is cheap and reliable, and would always be hired instead of the MTs, and yet the Ark still cares to hire MT veterans for some inexplicable reason. Maybe it's to give them the false sense of hope that they'll get money to feed their families. Who knows.

"Alright, I'll help you out. Once I get out of the Hospital of course."

"Good to hear that. I hope you recover soon." And with that, Ozpin left, but before he could get to the door, Nicholas asked one last question.

"How come _you're_ hiring me? I thought that only someone with more authority would be allowed to hire a merc." Ozpin turned around.

"An academy's headmaster is much more influential than you think." And then he finally exited.

'A cryptic sentence. Mysterious. Smart maybe? Definitely annoying. But I got the message.' Catalyst thought.

* * *

 **Some time later**

"Catalyst, is it?" The mercenary nodded. "A lot of people are here to see you."

"What for?" The doors flung open, and there was an absolute swarm of news teams, reporters and the four guys who write articles on newspapers rushed in to get the details about the first person they could talk to who was from the 'Nexus Region'. 'I still can't believe that they called it that.' He thought as he was slowly drowned by questions upon questions about his life at the 'Nexus Region', what it was like, and if he was going to kill them when they least suspected it.

He answered the questions as truthfully and quickly as he could, and asked them all to bugger off before he killed them when they least suspected it (He never really had a propensity for making original threats.).He was in a hospital with an injury for fucks sake. Though he couldn't help but feel like something about that was going to bite him in the ass like a rabid dog later on in his life.

As he lay there on the hospital bed, he couldn't help but wonder about some things. What would they do with his MT? Would they borrow the tech from it, take some inspiration from it? He really didn't know. He probably should have made some terms on his own ground too. God, that was gonna bite him in the ass too.

* * *

 **Well, you asked how the Dust was accessible by the AC guys. So why not add some logic rather than saying, 'It's magic shit. It just happens.'**

 **Edit: This is very shoehorned, and probably won't be used later. The only reason it's still here is because I need a reminder of my mistakes. Also I want to keep the wordcount up. Lazy, I know. I'll try to avoid it later. This segment WILL be removed once a less shoehorned explanation comes up.**

 **EDIT: I removed it.**


End file.
